Telecommunications systems, methods and computer program products are widely used for worldwide communications of voice, multimedia and/or data. As is well known to those having skill in the art, long distance country codes are used in international direct dialing. The long distance country codes are also referred to in the telecommunications industry as assigned country codes, IDDD codes or simply as country codes. For example, the United States is assigned country code 1, France is assigned country code 33 and Japan is assigned country code 81. These country codes are assigned by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
The long distance country codes are used within a telecommunications provider that operates a plurality of telecommunications switches to provision the switches. In particular, a telecommunications provider may include a Complex Translations Group (CTG), often referred to as a Translations Group, which includes technicians who are responsible for programming country codes, area codes, local switch codes and/or other codes in the switches. This process is referred to as provisioning the switches. If an improper long distance country code is provisioned in the switch, it may result in improper routing of a call. Other telecommunications system users also may use the long distance country codes for direct dialing of long distance calls, either manually or in connection with speed dialing or automatic dialing devices.
As is also well known to those having skill in the art, country codes may change. These changes may occur when a new country code is added or a country code is changed. The CTG within a telecommunications company often finds out about a new or changed country code as a result of a customer trouble report, when a customer attempted to dial an international long distance number and was routed to the wrong number or could not connect. In other instances, an email may be received from another member of the CTG staff, or another member of the telecommunications provider who learns about the new or changed country code. This may be contrasted from changes in area codes, wherein the telecommunications provider typically initiates the change in an area code, and therefore has advance notice of the change in an area code. The switch can then be provisioned with the new area code at the appropriate time, to reduce or eliminate dialing or routing errors.